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🌊 One War Ends and Another Begins
We break down three major stories that took place around the world
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By Max Frost
It’d be a mistake to think that because so much is happening in Washington, DC, important and interesting things aren’t transpiring elsewhere. In Romania, for example.
On Sunday, the country – an EU and NATO member – declared that its apparently most popular politician will not be allowed to stand in upcoming elections. The country is intensely divided over whether that’s fair.
The candidate, Calin Georgescu, opposes NATO and has a soft spot for Russia and Romania’s fascist past. He’s an eccentric outsider who no one in Romania’s political establishment took seriously – until November, when he placed first in presidential elections. Before the election, he was polling at less than 5%; he ended up winning 23%. Many people couldn’t believe it. They hardly knew who he was.
23% wasn’t enough to win the presidency, but it was enough to put Georgescu in a head-to-head final round, scheduled for December, where he could win the presidency. Polls showed him leading. Then, days prior, authorities canceled the vote, alleging that Georgescu benefited from Russian interference.
Romanian authorities claimed that Russia had organized tens of thousands of TikTok bot accounts that coordinated to promote and amplify videos of Georgescu, and that Russia paid around $400,000 to Romanian influencers to boost Georgescu. Russia’s goal, they said, was to rig the election so Romania would elect a president who would cut aid to Ukraine. Romania borders Ukraine and has played a key role in providing military aid shipments to the country.
Whether there is enough evidence is being hotly debated, and the Trump Administration had decided that there is not. As VP Vance said in his controversial Munich speech:
This December, Romania straight up canceled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors.
Now, as I understand it, the argument was that Russian disinformation had infected the Romanian elections, but I’d ask my European friends to have some perspective. You can believe it’s wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.
Romania rescheduled its elections for this May. Recent polls have shown that Georgescu is now the most popular candidate, with around 40% backing. Electoral authorities had until March 19 to decide if Georgescu should be able to run. On Sunday, they decided: “No.”
The officials said that Georgescu may have violated laws against extremism and therefore can’t run. The Romanian establishment thinks they’ve taken a step toward saving democracy; many others think they’ve taken a step toward destroying it.
Now, let’s make sense of two more topics: A potential end to the Kurdish conflict in Turkey, and the potential start of a new war in Syria.
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Editor’s Note
Please let us know your thoughts on today’s newsletter. We’ve been focusing on American politics lately and don’t want to neglect the rest of the world. Let us know if you want more or fewer stories like today’s by replying here.
And in case you missed them, check out our last five stories:
See you tomorrow–
Max and Max